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| Northern seabird becomes a South Florida snowbird |
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 A seabird that nests on the icy cliffs of northern New England and Canada has been a surprise visitor to South Florida over the past several weeks, showing up in the hundreds off the condo-lined coasts of Fort Lauderdale, Boynton Beach and other cities.
The razorbill, which shares its tuxedo color-scheme with the penguin, has been seen swimming, diving for fish and skimming over the ocean along much of the Florida peninsula, with some spotted off Key West and others in the Gulf of Mexico.
Although the bird's arrival has generated excitement among bird watchers, its appearance this far south is taken by some scientists as potentially a bad symptom for the planet and certainly bad news for the birds. At least 20 of the birds have turned up dead, their emaciated bodies indicating they've had little luck finding food in the warm waters of South Florida.
"Ecologically, they're the northern hemisphere equivalent of the penguin," said Jim Rodgers, an ornithologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "If you squint your eyes, the razorbill looks like a penguin. They dive very deep and use their wings to flap dive. They can go 200, 300 feet down looking for fish."
It's unclear what brought them here. One theory blames Hurricane Sandy for disrupting their food supply. Some scientists say the cause may have been an increase in ocean temperatures off the northeastern coast of North America that took place over the past few months. This may have made it hard for the razorbills to find food, forcing them to fly farther and farther in search of fish.
Don Long, of Pembroke Pines, was fishing off John U. Lloyd Beach State Park in Hollywood when he encountered a pair of razorbills, which mate for life. "These two swam over to our boat and found the chum bag," he said. "And they started like flying under water."
Reports of the strange birds' appearance circulated widely in the bird-watching community. Bryant Roberts, a veteran birder from Davie, went looking for them off Port Everglades and saw one about 100 yards off the port's north jetty.
"It was swimming and diving," he said. "It's such an unusual bird for Florida. They had to be very hungry to come down to find food. It's bad news for them."
Razorbills are creatures of the far north, spending most of their lives at sea and coming ashore to nest and breed. They prefer rocky shores and high cliffs, building their nests across an arc of habitat that extends from Russia and Scandinavia to Canada, Nova Scotia and northern Maine. They travel south to escape ice-covered water so they can find fish.
Marshall Iliff, project leader for the Avian Knowledge Network of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said the increase in ocean temperature of 4 degrees Centigrade was "huge" and could well account for the bird's journey south. Other northern species showing up in South Florida in large numbers include the black scoter and the common loon, he said.
"It's hard to tie specific events to global warming but the warm water is the kind of thing you'd expect from global warming," he said.
Although he said the razorbills are probably finding fish to eat in South Florida and in the Gulf, he said he expected them to try to return to their native habitat.
"I think they're likely to find their way home, if they're able to find enough food," he said. "I have complete faith in their navigational abilities."
(Source:Sunsentinel.com)
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